Essay Sample on Hugo Lucas's Old House: A Story of Decay and Rehabilitation

Introduction

Hugo Lucas spends most of the weekdays at a local rehab center in Michigan, which is located few blocks away from his residential apartment. He lives in a distinguished old house that seemed to have collapsed from the inside or a loaf that had been taken out of the oven too soon. The roof is saggy, and the cedar silts held like shaky teeth. The windows are broken, and sheets of old newspapers are stuck on the metal grills using tapes to break the force of the wind. Around the house grows long unkempt grass with tracks leading to a kernel where Hugo keeps his dog, "Bosco," suggesting that the 76years old man leaves alone in his poorly house. At the entrance is an old mailbox that has not been used for several months. While walking home on a Friday evening, he realizes that the door of the metal box appeared tilted and he reaches for a letter with the title "To the Man Who could have Raised Me." It is a letter from his forty years old daughter who he had never seen ever since she was five. The message informs him that his daughter existed and his abandoned wife had died few days ago. His daughter Maria is married and lives in Virginia with her two children. She invites him to Virginia or the burial and gives him the address to use. Hugo selects one of his best pair of suit that seems to have been bought in the 90s for the journey and heads to Virginia to meet his daughter.

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It was two more days before Hugo's daughter could talk to her father. Either she did not know what to ask him or was still bitter about being abandoned. After a long silence during the repast party, Hugo breaks the silence and starts narrating his life story which Maria listens aggressively. He first describes his childhood living with his parents in the era of the Mexican migration in the early 1950s. He explains to his daughter that his parents migrated to the US illegally in search of economic improvement and education. In the US, his parents worked as cleaners in local businesses and enrolled him for primary school at the age of 7. He was a brilliant kid and top of his class; he was emotionally harassed by schoolmates, with some calling him a "Poor Mexican beggar." He hated being referred poor because he would wear worn-out shoes and clothes, although they were clean.

Hugo's parents died in a horrible car crash on their way home from a dry cleaner business they had established to gather money to pay for their son's school fees. This was a year before Hugo joined high school. The death of his parents traumatized him since he was left alone with education to study, and business to operate at the age of 13. The store closed down, and Hugo later joined high school with the help of missionaries from the church he attended. Since he was excellent in studies, he enrolled in a college, university, and later did Psychology Master Degree at Oxford University. After completing his studies, he was employed as a professor at his former University, where he met his lover, Annette, who was a student in the school. Since it is unethical for a teacher to have personal affairs with the students, Hugo was so guilty that he had fallen for a student. However, he stepped over his guilt and slept with his girlfriend, making her pregnant. When he learned that his partner was pregnant, he fled for Michigan to escape social humiliation and emotional torture due to guilt. In Michigan, Hugo starts drinking to calm his nerves, which becomes a habit. He had used all his savings to buy a house, and the rest to "enjoy life." One day he is attacked by robbers, who stole his phone and hit him on the head with a blunt object. His nerves have frozen, and he lies on a pool of his blood, luckily a patrol car finds him bleeding and takes him to a hospital. After various efforts by doctors, he fully recovers ready to be discharged. On his way out, he sees a woman with a child who he recognizes that it is Annett. Hugo looks dirty, exhausted, and his shirt full of blood. Annett had recently married and was happy with her life. She denies him the chance to talk to his daughter claiming that she was pleased with her life, and she never wanted to hear from him. He walks home in pain and a prescription of drugs put on his shirt pocket. At this time, he had no savings and had already developed a drinking problem. Thus, he turned to cocaine and heroin, which he bought with the money earned from casual labor. The more one gets to drugs, the more they need them. And this was Hugo's case. He was not satisfied with money he earned as it was barely enough for food and drugs. He turned into robbing with gangs and was arrested and jailed for ten years. He was pardoned for ethical conduct at the age of 52 and had no clue of any family in his life. He explains to his daughter that he always wished he had faced his problem so that he would at least raise his family. However, he regrets not standing as a man, which is why he attends the rehab center to offer his advice, and counsel addicts that the best decision to make is facing their fears, which he jokingly says that "if I faced my fears, Bosco wouldn't be the only family I know." At the age of 80, Hugo lives with his daughter in Virginia, where he is given care due to his diabetic condition, and still sacrifices some of his time to attend local rehabs and social meetings discussing alcohol and substance abuse.

Bibliography

Angelucci, Manuela. "Migration and financial constraints: Evidence from Mexico." Review of Economics and Statistics 97, no. 1 (2015): 224-228. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00487.

Hutchison, Elizabeth D. "A life course perspective." Dimensions of human behavior: The changing life course 4, Los Angeles, CAL: SAGE (2010): 1-38. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ESi8ZEqUwRcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=the+life+course+perspective+case+study&ots=vi4O3I9O0v&sig=Wn_065w0Tfv-sDh6VasRTD29PQA